


Alone Together

by Hagar



Series: The Ranger's Rest [2]
Category: Power Rangers Mystic Force, Power Rangers Wild Force
Genre: First Meetings, Gen, Male-Female Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-19
Updated: 2012-11-19
Packaged: 2017-11-19 01:35:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/567563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hagar/pseuds/Hagar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merrick comes to Ranger's Rest to be safely alone in a crowd; Maddie comes to Ranger's Rest to be alone together, too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alone Together

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wildforce71](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wildforce71/gifts).



> wildforce71, Sailor Sol and I had a bet yesterday on whether or not there'll be rocket sirens in my city yesterday. The bet was on at least 500 words of fic per winner's prompt. We ended up with a bit of a discussion over the terms of the bet (such as whether it was literally about sirens or more broadly about rocket incidents, and also the difference of 18:40 from "until 17:00") but regardless, wildforce71 asked for a fic with Merrick, Sol suggested Maddie and Ranger's Rest, and the result is before you.

The girl looked like – well, a girl, Merrick thought. He didn’t know her name or what team she was from, but she seemed young enough to be either early in her service, or not yet a Ranger. The latter was a distinct probability; the loose, comfortable-looking pants and jacket she wore (they were called a track suite, Merrick nowadays knew, but the term did not come easy) were brown, which was not a Ranger colour. However, a blue shirt showed from underneath, so he couldn’t be sure either way.

She was young, she was quiet, and at some point in her life she would be – or was, or had been – a Ranger. Those were the only things Merrick knew for sure.

Those, and she had a habit of sitting close to the pool table. 

He’d been irritated with that, at first. Ranger’s Rest was a place of peace, for him, a sanctuary. Other people were not included in that, more often than not. Merrick often came to Ranger’s Rest seeking a safe solitude. The first time the girl sat near him, Merrick had had to remind himself that this was Ranger’s Rest, and this would not happen without reason. She was quiet enough, easy to ignore – no, not ignore: fold into the background.

It took him a while to remember the phrase Alyssa used to describe what he came to Ranger’s Rest for: _being alone together_. That was what the girl was doing too, Merrick realized. She had her own work to be absorbed in: sometimes a book, but more often a laptop – Merrick caught flashes of moving images if he looked at the right angle, young people no older than this girl, laughing, and once the image of an older woman, the lines that war ploughed etched in her face.

Already a Ranger, then.

Mostly she was absorbed in her own things ( _alone_ ) but sometimes she’d glance up, look around, catch his eyes as if randomly ( _together_ ). Merrick smiled back at her, once he understood why their paths kept crossing. It was barely a twitch of his lips, to be honest, but then, her own smile was not much wider than that. She didn’t need a smile to broadcast warmth and welcome, Merrick reflected ruefully.

He wondered what sort of a team needed a Blue like this, what sort of a Red. 

The waitress came over to drop a basket of fries at the girl’s table that she had not asked for. On her way back, the waitress glanced at him, a question on her face. Merrick nodded. The waitress returned a moment later with two glasses of something dark and fizzy that – Merrick sniffed – did not smell like alcohol.

Merrick took both glasses and crossed the short distance to the girl’s table.

She looked up when he put the glasses down on the worn wood. “You’re going to have to tell me what that is,” he told her as he sat down.

Something shifted in her expression. Not as if the question was strange to her, but as if she understood what his asking that might’ve meant.

“It’s called root beer,” she said as she pulled her glass towards her.

“Doesn’t smell like beer.”

“That’s because it’s sort of not.”

She sounded as if she’d expected to be mocked for that statement; contemporary humans and their issues with alcohol and age, more than likely. He was visibly older than her – not much, but enough for it to matter, in this fragile phase of early adulthood.

He nodded, a little thoughtfully, and took a sip. The taste was much like the smell – sweet, somewhat herbaceaous; comforting, he decided. “I like it,” he told her.

She smiled again. “Good.”

“Merrick,” he offered, because she was going to let him set the pace, concerned he might spook; he knew what that expression looked like on someone’s face, and she was young enough that he could read it off her face. A little older and she’d be too good for that, he already knew.

“Maddie. I mean, my name is Madison, but – ” 

She hesitated, and on an impulse – so much like Alyssa, this Blue, this Maddie – Merrick completed: “But your friends call you Maddie.”

Blush crept into her cheek, also brown like Alyssa’s. “Yes,” she agreed. 

He smiled. “Nice to meet you, Maddie.”


End file.
